October 2010

FCC Chairman Defends Budget Request

On June 9, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski testified before the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Appropriations on the agency's budget. On October 15, Chairman Genachowski sent answers to follow-up questions from the hearing.

Questions cover the National Broadband Plan, freeing spectrum now reserved for television for wireless broadband, digital literacy initiatives for small businesses, broadband deployment in US territories like Puerto Rico, the proposed Emergency Response Interoperability Center, hiring new staff, cybersecurity, broadcast television retransmission consent, broadband reclassification, and much more.

Consumer Satisfaction with Broadband Declines

Overall customer satisfaction with residential high speed Internet service declined slightly in 2010, according to the 13th annual J.D. Power and Associates survey of residential high-speed Internet services.

While DSL customers remained more satisfied with their broadband services than cable modem subscribers, the gap between DSL and cable narrowed in 2010, J.D. Power found. Overall customer satisfaction in the 2010 survey stood at 634 on a 1,000-point scale, a drop of five points from 2009. DSL customers ranked their service at 638, versus 621 for cable modems, but the difference between the two types of service narrowed by eight index points to 17. Overall customer satisfaction with the cost of their service dropped by 12 points to 584 in 2010, but the percentage of customers who actually switched service providers during the last 12 months for reasons other than moving declined by more than 25% compared to 2009, J.D. Power found.

ACLU Pushes Bill Authorizing Televised Supreme Court Arguments

The American Civil Liberties Union is trying to get the Senate to tee up a bill in the lame duck session that would authorize televising Supreme Court oral arguments. The bill (S. 446), is backed by court camera fan and Sen Arlen Specter (D-PA), a former Republican and former prosecutor. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, but has yet to get a vote in the full senate. "The Court decides too many questions of monumental importance to the American people to deny them the opportunity to observe its proceedings," wrote ACLU, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Alliance for Justice. "The time has come for the Supreme Court to enter the 21st century and join the high courts of the United Kingdom and Canada by permitting broadcast television coverage of its open proceedings." The idea is to get Senate staffers thinking about the bill before the election week takes over their agenda.

Nepal firm takes high speed Internet to Mt Everest

A private telecom firm took high speed Internet facilities to the top of the world when it launched Nepal's first 3G services at the base camp of Mount Everest. The installation could help the tens of thousands of mountain climbers and trekkers who visit the Mount Everest region in the Solukhumbu district every year. They have to depend on expensive satellite phones to remain in touch with their families as the remote region lacks proper communication facilities. Nepali telecom company Ncell said its new facility is the first 3G setup at the base camp of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain at 8,850 meters (29,035 feet).

Google pledges AdWords clarity, France ends probe

Google has pledged to change rules and procedures for its keyword advertising policy in France to settle an investigation by the French antitrust regulator and stave off a possible fine.

The Autorite de la Concurrence had been investigating Google since June after French GPS and smartphone data services company Navx accused the world's No. 1 search engine company of abusing its dominant position by scrapping its AdWords contract. The AdWords service, where Google sells keywords that trigger advertisements, is the heart of the company's $23 billion online advertising operations and a pillar of commerce for Internet service providers. The French watchdog said that Google's binding commitments, which are valid for three years, were sufficient to address its competition concerns.

Two Men Plead Guilty To Defrauding FCC Program

The Department of Justice Department announced that two men have pleaded guilty to charges that they conspired to defraud the Federal Communications Commission's video relay service program, which allows people who are deaf or hard of hearing to communicate by phone with others.

John Yeh, the owner of Viable Communications, and Joseph Yeh, the company's former vice president for corporate strategy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The men allegedly submitted $55 million in VRS claims to the FCC. John and Joseph Yeh admitted to conspiring with others to pay people to make fraudulent VRS phone calls using Viable's service and then submitting claims for the fraudulent call minutes to the FCC for the VRS services.

Agencies to Get Customer Service Grades

Federal officials are preparing to release a new online dashboard to highlight how agencies score on customer service as they adopt social networking tools to engage the public.

The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies are developing the dashboard to display and compare agencies' customer service standards and levels of customer satisfaction. The relevant metrics include waiting times, processing times and the percentage of problems resolved with a single phone call or online interaction. OMB expects the dashboard to launch in late 2010, according to the GAO report released Oct. 27. The Government Accountability Office said the dashboard would be a step toward improving service but noted that more work needs to be done for agencies to identify and share best practices with one another and share information with customers.

O'Donnell, Palin Trigger Blog Battles

As Election Day approaches, comments by two of the biggest names in the tea party movement-GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin-generated party-line responses in the blogosphere.

The No. 1 topic, at 17% of the links from October 18-22, stemmed from O'Donnell's comments during an October 19 debate, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. In the debate she questioned an aspect of the First Amendment, asking, "Where in the Constitution is separation of church and state?" A day before, in Reno, Nevada, Palin proclaimed that her supporters couldn't "party like it's 1773" until Washington is full of like-minded conservatives. Those remarks ranked No. 3 for the week at 8% of the links.

Collaboration Yields Broadband for North Carolina Telehealth Network

The partners in the North Carolina Telehealth Network (NCTN) project have taken the next step forward in assuring that North Carolina non-profit health care providers have the broadband services needed to improve the health and care of North Carolina citizens by announcing today a $7.2 million contract to connect local public health agencies and free clinics with the NCTN.

The Cabarrus Health Alliance (CHA), the NCTN project coordinator, signed a contract valued at up to $7.2 million with MCNC and the N.C. Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) as a major sub-contractor. According to the contract, MCNC and ITS will supply reliable high-speed broadband services for the Public Health Phase of the NCTN. This phase supports public health agencies, several of the larger free clinics and several community health centers throughout the state. Services for the first wave of 52 sites are planned to start in the next 60 to 90 days with a second wave of about 20 sites soon thereafter. MCNC and ITS will work with private-sector service telecommunications firms including AT&T, Time Warner Cable and CenturyLink to connect these facilities to NCREN. The NCTN project is divided into two phases. The first phase covers local public health agencies and some free clinics and community health centers. The second phase, which covers non-profit and university hospitals, is planned to be awarded by early 2011 and be operational by mid-2011.

Both NCTN phases are supported by a 2007 pilot program award of $12.1 million from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as part of the FCC's Rural Healthcare Pilot Program. Cabarrus Health Alliance manages this award. The award is used to subsidize part of the cost of broadband connections for local public health agencies, free clinics, and public and non-profit hospitals. Several for-profit hospitals are expected to participate in the NCTN, but without these subsidies. CHA has obtained formal commitment from the FCC to provide $3.4M in subsidies for the first round of 52 sites under this NCTN phase one contract.

Rockefeller dismisses Citynet's objections to broadband plan

Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has dismissed Citynet's objections to the way the state plans to spend a $126 million federal grant to build broadband infrastructure.

Jim Martin, Citynet's president and chief executive officer, said he's disappointed with Rockefeller's position but plans to continue fighting to change the way the money is spent. Sen Rockefeller and Gov. Joe Manchin (D-WV) both mentioned the federal broadband grant during a press conference held to announce Verizon Wireless' investment in fourth-generation wireless technology in the state. Sen Rockefeller praised Manchin for writing "a fabulous grant." He recalled that Commerce Secretary Gary Locke came to Wheeling in February to announce that West Virginia would receive $126 million. The senator said a lot of people like to criticize the federal stimulus package. Sen Rockefeller, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, did not mention that he authored some of the legislation that put broadband project money in the stimulus package.

Benton

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